The 1893 248 West 23rd Street

 

Contractor and real estate developer Isidore Hoffstadt and his wife, Bettie, often worked as a team--Bettie handling the business side and Isidore the construction.  On May 15, 1893, the New York Herald reported that Bettie Hoffstadt had spent $28,000 for the 25-foot-wide, four-story brownstone at 248 West 23rd Street.  On the site, Hoffstadt erected a six-story business building.

The structure went up at lighting speed and construction was completed before the end of the year.  The pace was made possible by the pre-fabricated, cast iron faceted bay that engulfed most of the second through sixth floors.  Above a cast iron base, the bay nestled between beige brick piers decorated with terra cotta tiles and carved "capitals."  A commercial take on Italian Renaissance Revival, the design was capped by an elaborate pressed metal cornice.

Immediately upon its completion, the Hoffstadts sold 248 West 23rd Street to William C. G. Wilson for $86,000, or about $3.2 million in 2026 terms.  The building's early tenants included two disparate lighting companies--The Incandescent Gas Lamp Co. and the Standard Electric Light and Novelty Co.

On March 15, 1894, the cumbersomely named The Plumbers' Trade Journal, Gas, Steam and Hot Water Fitters' Review reported on the former firm's innovation in lighting.  "This burner they claim will distribute the gas evenly allowing a large volume of oxygen to unite with the gas and gives a brilliant mellow light."

The Sun, November 18, 1897 (copyright expired)

In reporting on the Standard Electric Lamp & Novelty Company on September 5, 1896, Western Electrician noted, "The company has prepared a large number of new designs in miniature incandescent lamps for decorative purposes that are very beautiful and of various shades of color and forms."  In addition to the firm's cutting edge technology in electric lighting, it also manufactured "complete X-ray outfits," according to the article.

Other tenants by the turn of the century were Samuel Budd, who made "fine custom shirts;" Demmerle & Co., makers of automobile apparel like cloth caps and dusters; Bennett & Felt, "dealers in mantels," and the somewhat shady The Animal World and The Humane Alliance.

The latter organization was headed by E. C. Vick.  His operation came crashing down when he was arrested on February 25, 1901 for "using the United States mails for fraudulent purposes," according to The New York Times.  Vick placed advertisements in newspapers nationwide that promised that "he would give to all who wished them pet animals of all species" for free.  But there were conditions.

First, the recipient had to take a pair of animals, one male and the other female, and "agree to sell to The Animal World the first of the progeny."  The recipient also had to purchase a $1 membership to The Animal World and the Humane Alliance.  But when the prospective subscriber send off his $1, instead of receiving his pair of gray squirrels or Belgian hares or even Shetland ponies, he received a letter that said, "on receipt of the requisite number of subscriptions to the publications...the animals would be shipped forthwith."  

According to Post Office Inspector Sutton, letters of complaint had come pouring into his office, "by the score from all parts of the country."  Vick defended himself, saying that his arrest was "a mistake" and that he would show that "everything was on the square."

Uncontestedly "on the square" was Demmerle & Co.  Having started out manufacturing cloth caps for automobile drivers, by 1903 it was designing and making entire outfits.  On October 1 that year, the Cycle & Automobile Trade Journal reported on the company's new invention--a "combination garment...intended for use as an overcoat or as pants and coat."  The ankle-length coat could be modified by wrapping the lower portions around the legs, creating "pants."  The article said, "Where it is necessary to straddle a steering pillar to manipulate foot levers, this coat will be found very useful in cold weather as both limbs are protected against the cold and wind."

The lower portion Demmerle automobile coat could be converted to pants.  Cycle & Automobile Trade Journal, October 1, 1903 (copyright expired)

Demmerle & Co. introduced another innovation in automobile apparel that year--"the first automobile gown."   The Evening World explained on January 23, 1903, "The proper attire for the feminine motorist is more difficult to determine than any other style of garment."  At the request of "Mrs. Vanderbilt" (the article did not specify which of the Vanderbilt women), Demmerle & Co. had designed "a tailor suit of tan suede."  The article said the socialite requested "something that would be warm and comfortable and at the same time display her shapely figure."

Demmerle & Co. created this custom-made "automobile suit" for Mrs. Vanderbilt.  The Evening World,  January 23, 1903 (copyright expired)

The Vanderbilt suit sparked an entire line of women's apparel for automobile travel.

Demmerle & Co. did not rely solely on their in-house designers.  On May 21, 1904, Automobile Topics reported, "Mr. L. Mendelsohn, of Demmerle & Co., 248 West Twenty-third street, sailed on Tuesday for Europe...He expects to study the situation in the automobile clothing trade abroad and will return with many novelties."

The Clothier & Furnisher, August 1907 (copyright expired)

Mendelsohn's trip might have surprised many in the industry.  The previous month, 248 West 23rd Street was ravaged by fire.  Boys playing in the vacant lot next door on April 14, 1904 built a bonfire.  It spread into the building through a first floor window.  The New York Times reported that the fire "raged on the first, second, and third floors for nearly half an hour."  The Demmerle & Co. employees were quickly evacuated, but the 50 young women who were employed in Samuel Gordon's shirt factory on the top two floors were trapped.

The Times said the women "became panic-stricken.  A few of them were induced by three policemen to climb out over the roof to safety, but the majority were taken down in the elevator."  Hugh Norton, known by the building's occupants as Hughey, was the elevator operator.  According to The Spectator, he "stuck by his elevator and ran it up ten times through smoke and flame until every one of the imprisoned girls was brought down to safety."  The New York Times reported, "When the last of the girls were safe in the street the elevator man fell in a faint, completely exhausted."  

In response to Norton's actions, according to The Spectator on April 21, "Andrew Carnegie has just established a fund of $5,000,000 from which such heroes are to be rewarded."

Edward Rhine moved his Rhine & Co. into the building in 1907.  The Millinery Trade Review reported that the firm had "increased their facilities for the manufacture of millinery linings, as well as their sales of millinery lining silk."  

The company had barely settled in when an employer, fabric cutter Joseph Moses, approached Edward Rhine, "with the proposition that for $700 he would give Rhine information leading to the arrest of employees in his establishment who were robbing him," reported the New York Herald on May 26, 1907.  Rhine notified the police and a detective provided him a marked $10 bill and instructed him to make an appointment with Moses.

Rhine met Moses at the corner of Nassau and Fulton Streets on the night of May 25.  After taking the bill, Moses told Rhine that "if he would watch the corner of Bleecker and Carmine Streets later in the evening he would discover a dishonest employee."  At that point, undercover detectives arrested Moses.

Detectives then went to Bleecker and Carmine and waited.  Two men met on the corner, one with a suitcase and the other with a large bundle, and entered a saloon.  The man with the bundle was Sephan Nilan, an employee of Edward Rhine.

The detectives followed the pair into a back room.  The New York Herald said they "found four men clustered about a table, upon which were displayed about $500 worth of fine silks and feathers."  All four were arrested and, according to the article, police would release Moses the next day.

Fairchild's Men's Wear Directory, 1907 (copyright expired)

In 1912, Demmerle & Co. employed 78 workers, 29 of whom were females and 3 were teenagers between 14 and 16 years old.  By then, the firm had expanded into full automobile wardrobes, including footwear and chauffeurs' uniforms.

The Savoy Waist and Dress Company occupied the top floor in 1914 when another example of heroism during a fire took place.  At around 6:00 on the night of October 15, Mabel Snedecker, the firm's owner, discovered that the back stairway was in flames.  A series of full-width, balcony-like fire escapes fronted the 23rd Street facade and Schnecker directed her workforce of 60 young women toward the fire escapes.  As they exited the building, they saw that "hundreds of persons" had gathered on the street below, "according to the New York Herald.  The article said, "In the excitement two girls fainted."

The building-wide, platform-like fire escapes that saved the lives of the Savoy Waist and Dress Company employees were still in place in 1940.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Calling their employer a "heroine," the New York Herald said, "They were carried down the fire escape to safety on Miss Snedecker's back before the firemen arrived."  The newspaper said that, while the fire was confined to the top floor, the Savoy Waist and Dress Company factory was "entirely destroyed."

In 1914, the ground floor space became home to the American Soda Fountain Company.  It would remain at least into the 1920s.

By the early Depression years, apparel firms had migrated northward and 248 West 23rd Street began seeing a different type of tenant.  In February 1930, for instance, the Skinnell Silver Plating Company moved into the building.

In the mid-1960s, A Dinnerman Storage occupied at least one of the lofts, and in 1974 the Printmaking Workshop was in the building.  The New York Amsterdam News explained on July 20 that year that the organization "endeavors to make art a part of each student's life experience--using their own creative images as the catalyst."

Healthy Chelsea, a health food store, occupied the ground floor space in the mid-1980s.  It remained until 2009, replaced by a dentist office, a frozen yogurt shop, and finally a tax consultant firm in 2015.  

The storefront has been modernized with unflattering panels, however the upper floors remain essentially intact.  Although there was never an official renovation to residential, there are six apartments in the building today.

photographs by the author